FOREST TREES AND FOREST REGIONS OF THE U. S. 



39 



NORTHERN FOREST REGION 



The northern forest region covers most of New England and New 

 York, extends southward over the Allegheny Plateau and Appalachian 

 Mountains to northern Georgia, and in the Lake States includes most 

 of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (fig. 7). It was the first land 

 in the United States to be logged and it now contains only insignificant 

 areas of virgin timber. Cutting is going on mostly in small-sized 

 timber which produces small dimension lumber (used for boxes and 

 many forms of novelties), pulp wood, and fuel wood. The area of all 

 types in forest or woods is roundly estimated at 83,201,000 acres 

 divided into 17,118,000 acres of birch-beech-maple type, 14,487,000 

 of pine type, 21,688,000 acres of aspen type, and 29,908,000 acres of 

 spruce-fir type. The reestablishment of forests on denuded or 

 abandoned agricultural land is progressing rapidly either naturally or 

 by planting in this region, especially on low-grade farm lands in New 

 York and Michigan, where public and private agencies are working 

 aggressively. Forest protection is well developed, and the use of 

 forests for game and recreational purposes is important. 



The northern forest region is characterized by the predominance of 

 northern white pine, eastern hemlock, red and white spruces, gray, 

 paper, sweet, and yellow birches, beech, sugar maple, basswoods, and 

 northern red and scarlet oaks (pis. 3 and 4). Each of these species 

 varies in abundance in different parts of the region, and most of them 

 are absent in some places. For example, northern white pine is 

 relatively abundant in the southern parts of Maine and New Hamp- 

 shire, red or Norway pine in northern Minnesota, red spruce in upper 

 Maine, New Hampshire, and New York, and white spruce in the 

 northern portions of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. The 

 southern extension of the region is characterized by an abundance of 

 oaks of various kinds, chestnut, black gum, yellow poplar, cucumber 

 tree, black locust, and southern balsam fir. Once chestnut formed 

 more than one-half of the total stand, but the blight has reduced the 

 species to a remnant in the extreme southern portion. Vast quanti- 

 ties of chestnut wood and bark have been used for tannin extract 

 (acid wood) and the straight trees for poles. 



The more abundant or valuable trees composing the two divisions 

 of the northern forest region in their relative importance beginning 

 with the highest are as follows: 



NORTHERN FOREST TREES 



Northern portion: 



Red, black, and white spruces. 



Balsam fir. 



White, red (Norway), jack, and 



pitch pines. 

 Hemlock. 



Sugar and red maples. 

 Beech. 

 Northern red, white, black, and 



scarlet oaks. 

 Yellow, paper, black, and gray 



birches. 



Northern portion — Continued. 



Aspen (popple) and largetooth 



aspen. 

 Basswoods. 

 Black cherry. 



American, rock, and slippery elms. 

 White and black ashes. 

 Shagbark and pignut hickories. 

 Butternut. 



Northern white cedar. 

 Tamarack. 



